All Chapters of Howl for Justice : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

It's the friction that keeps us warm in the growing heat of the room, friction between minds and egos, between all we project and all we desire. The temperature rises with the stakes, the glass walls reflecting back our ambition until it feels as if we're caught in a pressure cooker of our own maki

I tear them apart with two words: market projections. Silence hits the room like an explosion, stunning in its impact. The words hang heavy in the air, the lethal precision of my strike sending shockwaves through the opposition. I see it in their eyes first—the disbelief, the rapid calculation, the

Crystal shivers on the edges of the too-long silence between us. I search Derek’s face as we eat, my eyes skipping over his proud nose and chiseled jaw, noting every flicker of emotion that might tell me why this evening feels different. He smiles, but it’s an empty gesture that doesn’t reach his ey

From across the room, I watch Derek charm his way through the crowd, a social butterfly in a sea of dull moths. I hold a champagne flute in my hand, the bubbles rising like my jealousy as he works the room with ease, drawing my colleagues in with his practiced sincerity. The scent of expensive perfu

The invitation taunts me from its place against the wine glass, too many possibilities folded inside its fine paper. The view from my windows is a cruel reminder of my dual existence, city lights and shadows merging until I can’t tell where the world ends and I begin. I pace the apartment, my reflec